The Scranton High Chums on the Cinder Path eBook

Soon the trio lay upon the ground, breathing hard,
and trying to talk at the same time. Both Hugh
and “Just” Smith were consumed with curiosity
to know how Claude happened to get into such a strange
predicament, and he hastened to explain.

After all, there was nothing so very singular about
it. His mother had stopped in to see an old
nurse, who had been in the family many years but was
at the time lying sick at her sister’s place.

Something influenced Claude to get out of the big
car to take a little stroll. Perhaps the sight
of all those happy lads running and jumping and throwing
weights had made him feel more than ever his own narrow,
confined life, kept out of the society of all the
other boys after school hours, and made to play the
part of a “mollycoddle,” as Roosevelt
called all such fellows who have never learned how
to take care of themselves when a bully threatens.

Unused to the woods and hills, of course the first
thing Claude did was to lose all sense of direction.
He became alarmed, and that made matters worse than
ever. So he had roamed about for almost a full
hour, dreadfully tiring his poor feet and limbs, since
he had never before in all his life walked so far
and done such vigorous climbing.

Then he had come to that precipice, and, thinking
he might glimpse the cottage where the old nurse lived,
somewhere down in the valley, he had incautiously
crept too close to the brink, when his weight caused
a portion of the soil to give way. Finding himself
falling, Claude had clutched desperately around him,
and, as it happened, his fingers gripped a friendly
bush, to which he continued to cling even as he struggled
to better his condition and shouted as best he was
able.

Hugh finished the story, to the edification of “Just”
Smith, who admitted that if it had not been for the
courage and muscular ability of Hugh the other boy
must long ago have fallen to the bottom of the awful
precipice. And Claude, shivering as he afterwards
looked up at the forty feet and more of rocky wall,
vowed he would never rest satisfied until he too had
learned how to develop his muscles so that if ever
again caught in a similar scrape he might have a fighting
chance for his life.

The two boys eventually found the cottage, although
Mrs. Jardine and the car had gone down the road hoping
to overtake Claude, though they were expected back
again later; so, leaving Claude there, Hugh and “Just”
Smith continued their seven-mile run.

CHAPTER XII

STARTLING NEWS FROM THE JUGGINS BOY

“Burr-r-r-r!”

That was the telephone bell ringing.

“Hugh, will you answer it, since the chances
are the call is from some one of your numerous boy
chums?” the voice of Mrs. Morgan came from the
dining-room, where she was looking after the silver
and china, after washing up the supper dishes, for
they temporarily chanced to be without a hired-girl.